WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency was expected to warn Americans in April that their attics and walls might contain a brand of insulation known as Zonolite, which contains a lethal form of asbestos known as tremolite. But at the last minute the White House prevented such announcement. Zonolite insulation was sold throughout North America from the 1940s through the 1990s.

Former EPA administrator William Ruckelshaus called the decision not to notify homeowners of the dangers posed by Zonolite insulation ‘the wrong thing to do.’

‘When the government comes across this kind of information and doesn’t tell people about it, I just think it’s wrong, unconscionable, not to do that,’ he said. ‘Your first obligation is to tell the people … of the possible danger.”.

(via Boston Globe)